What type of recorder should i buy

These are all well-regarded method books for beginners. What do I look for when I buy a recorder in wood? We recommend that you play on a quality plastic recorder rather than on a poorly made wood recorder.

Some recorders, particularly older ones, were mass-produced with little attention to tuning or response. You will be better served by playing a well-designed plastic recorder. Ready to take the leap into wood? Here are some ideas for choosing a recorder in wood.

XLI, No. You can also find out if there is an ARS chapter nearby. Chapters welcome beginners we all started out that way!

Some chapters have special programs to help beginners develop skills and confidence. The Directory also lists recorder teachers , including those who teach online. If you live where you can take even a few lessons from a recorder teacher, you might consider doing that to get off on the right foot, which is much easier than breaking bad habits later. Many teachers offer lessons via Zoom, making geographic location no problem. American Recorder magazine is a terrific resource for recorder players.

It is mailed to members four times each year. The magazine includes beginners' tips, news of the recorder world as well as scholarly articles on the recorder. It also lists advertisers who could help with the choice of recorders, method books, and music. Revoicing a recorder restores the windway dimensions to their proper size. It is normal for a new wooden recorder to need revoicing after it has been carefully broken in.

The block swells and changes the size of the windway. Recorder windways can also get dirty, so sometimes an instrument needs a thorough cleaning. If the instrument that once thrilled you is no longer as wonderful, you may need to send it to a professional for revoicing. The bass recorder is the central part of any ensemble. It uses F fingering like the alto, but the music is written in bass clef, so you need to learn this in order to be able to read it.

In any ensemble or recorder orchestra, the more basses the better, although this tends to be the last instrument that people learn in their recorder journey. There are several types of basses: the F basset, C great bass, F sub bass and C contra bass. As a recorder player you will get very good at juggling between different sized recorders, and later, different models of recorders with modern and early music reconstructions available.

Photographer Pam Rooney. When swapping between the C and F recorders, the written notes in the music appear the same, however the notes you play on the instruments are a different pitch and will sound at a different octave.

For example - if you are fingering the note 'B' on a descant, the same fingering is 'E' on the treble. It gets slightly easier each time to learn a new fingering, and teachers will always be able to give you tips on how to make the transition a little easier. Fingering charts are a great way to work out which fingering you need for which note. So you would like to join a recorder society?

In general you will find small and large ensembles, and recorder orchestras, depending on where you live. Small ensembles can be anything from two to six recorder players, but the most common repertoire is recorder quartet - SATB - soprano, alto, tenor and bass. Just like vocal quartets and string quartets, there are usually the two main parts by the soprano and alto, then the harmony utilising the tenor and the bass.

In large recorder ensembles, the higher-pitched the instrument, the fewer are needed, the lower the instrument, the more are needed - this is due to the register of the higher versus the low. In an orchestra you only want one piccolo! This is why recorder players who play the alto, tenor or bass recorders will always be more welcome in recorder ensembles than those who only play the soprano recorder. There are a lot of recorders in the recorder family, with small recorders ranging from 5 centimetres to large recorders that are several meters in height.

Then if they love the instrument most recorder players will learn soprano, alto, tenor and optional bass. If you become an intermediate to advanced ensemble player or love performing, there are several other recorders you can choose to learn. The recorder family according to height:. Click here to view Orpheus Music Recorders by size. Click here to view Recorders by brand.

Remember, the recorder repertoire is one of the largest of any western woodwind instrument starting in the medieval period. The repertoire includes renaissance, baroque, all the way to modern music with more music now being composed for it then ever before. We can also play folk music as almost every culture in the world has some kind of variation of recorder among their musical instruments.

There are even jazz recorder players now, as well as a huge array of recorder professionals who dedicate their life to its huge repertoire. So, if you want to discover the recorder, see if you have any recorder professionals or teachers in your area, or perhaps consider taking online lessons.

This evolved to the standard F later on. The alto recorder is sometimes given melody in recorder consorts if the group is a quartet of soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. Alto recorders are also seen occasionally in elementary music programs with older students.

Personally, I use the Aulos alto recorder to help my kids sing. As a male music teacher, I use the alto recorder to help them find their starting pitches without needing to go into falsetto too much.

The tenor recorder is the next one lower from the alto recorder. Like the soprano recorder, how loud is a soprano recorder?

This gives the tenor recorder a functional range of C4-C6. It is exactly one octave lower than the soprano and can be played with the exact same fingerings.

The tenor recorder typically adds a key to help reach the lowest holes which are beyond the reach of most fingers.

Tenor recorders come in around The Aulos tenor recorder is one I played on a lot in undergrad when I played in pick-up recorder consorts with other music-teachers-in-training. The bass recorder is the lowest of the standard 5 types of recorders. This recorder is based on F3 and plays one octave lower than the alto recorder. This gives the bass recorder a functional range of F3-F5.

The bass recorder is around 35 inches long. What is nice about this series is that much of the music in it is from the Renaissance or Baroque eras.

I used this book to learn Alto recorder fingering. What is nice about this book is it teaches Soprano and Alto fingering simultaneously.

I hope this helps you make your recorder purchasing choices a little easier. Happy playing! This site rocks the Classic Responsive Skin for Thesis. What Recorder Should I Buy?